ENGLAND batsman Ian Bell is enjoying the challenge of facing Muttiah Muralitharan as the Sri Lanka spin king broke the world record for Test wickets.

Warwickshire's Bell managed 83 on day two of the first Test in Kandy before being snaffled by Murali.

Bell said: "It was nice to get out there and start the series on a good note.

"(Muralitharan) is the champion bowler in the world and it's an exciting opportunity to go out there and score runs against him in his home country.

"It's a challenge. You have to watch the ball very carefully, try and watch it from the hand to start with and then off the pitch.

"There were a couple that I scored off, it's the first time I've played him in the long form of the game so it was nice to spend a bit of time out there and hopefully that is a nice start to the series for me.

"It's important that you rotate the strike and not to let him settle against one player.

"That was the hardest thing to do but that is one thing we're conscious of doing, taking our singles as well as cashing in on boundaries."

Bell believes England are still in a good position despite Paul Collingwood being the only recognised batsman left, with the Durham all-rounder on 14.

"It's a little bit low for the seam-ers but generally it's a pretty good wicket," Bell added.

"Hopefully we can come out tomorrow and get a couple of partnerships together and give ourselves a bit of a lead and go out and bowl pretty well and put them under pressure again.

"To be honest looking at past records at this ground a team batting second have won a lot of games here so hopefully it won't deteriorate too much and we can go out there and play the way we did to start with and keep the confidence going."

Murali equalled the record when Test debutant Ravi Bopara was caught down the leg-side by Prasanna Jayawardene.

* JAMES HILDRETH (136) and Warwickshire's Jonathan Trott (114) both hit centuries as an England performance programme XI made an impressive start to their three-day game against an MRF XI in Chennai.

The pair added 209 for the third wicket to help the tourists post 358 for four at the close on day one after being put in.